I bet your kids love their french house? Errr....
I'd thought that it was only once they got to teen years that my children found the french house tedious but reading this post it seems they've always felt that way
We recently discussed the idea of selling our french house. I may have mentioned this already as it is something that comes up often - we would have some nice cash in the bank and no longer have the burden of a) looking after a falling down house in rural france and b) not get hit with random expenses like this month’s £500 gas and electricity shortfall bill.
But when we suggested to our boys (now aged 18 and 14) in separate conversations that this might happen they both wailed ‘oh my god no you can’t sell the french house.’ Which struck me as odd because from the time we have bought it and on almost every visit they complain about the rubbish Wifi or the lack of stuff to do or the fact that their friends are all on ‘proper’ holidays.
I had assumed this was to do with hitting teenage years and wanting more from a holiday than a table tennis table and games of monopoly. In my head those early years when they played all day in a small pool we bought that you could build above ground were idyllic. Making happy memories that would last a lifetime. But on reading this blog post from almost ten years ago I realise they have actually always had something to moan about. Maybe my kids are just ungrateful but I suspect its a common problem with something that feels so familiar.
And looking back on old photos and blog posts yet to come when we had dozens of kids at the house I’m confident that the reason they don’t want us to sell it is that somewhere deep down they know how lucky they have been part of this life project.
We recently redecorated the room I talk about below which over the years became just Seb’s room as Arthur now has a giant attic room. And the Cath Kidston wall paper I talk about below was removed and the walls all repainted in a grown up red and greige. I have no pics as it isn’t quite finished but there are progress shots on my instagram account. And we cleared out the toy cupboard and got rid of a lot of the plastic tat - but I kept the Moshi Monster treehouse and the books.
They do both talk of the time in the future when the house becomes theirs and they can bring their own families and tidy the place up a bit and get rid of all the ‘old stuff’. Bonne chance I say…
When kids decorate
Posted on Feb 23 2013
I hope by now I’ve made it clear that this is a family project. One of our main reasons for buying the house was to give our kids a wealth of new experiences in a different country. Of course they will probably grow up hating France, french food, us, broken old houses and DIY. They’ll most likely rebel by moving into a new build flat one day full of wipe clean leather furniture and surround sound like Patrick Bateman in American Pyscho. But until then, we hope, this is to be an enriching time, learning how to order mint ice cream in restaurants, eating steak tartare and spending their time building dens (well for the forty minutes a day they can be dragged off their Nintendos).
One of our greatest frustrations with this project is the distinct lack of excitement shown by the children towards it. ‘House in France? Yeah whatevs seems to be the general mood. Perhaps all children are like this about things of which they know no different. Maybe the Beckham kids say things like ‘houses in LA, bucks, France, London, whatevs.’ And so it is that mine think owning a wood, two fields and having chickens on your land has the excitement factor one would normally associate with getting an extra piece of broccoli for your tea.
Things they do love about France though – vide greniers (Sunday markets) and the cheap plastic tat they can amass there, eating out, cooking in, mint ice cream and Madeleines. Add to that, a stripey hammock, rope swings, Orangina and our local pizza place called Restotop and its not all bad!
But there was the issue of their bedroom. Not used to sharing, the boys were bunked in one room here in France. Not due to lack of space but moreover as the house feels so big it would be weird to have them too far away from us. Well that and the fact that as most rooms were uninhabitable it was easier to focus on doing up one room rather than two. The room we’d earmarked for them looked like this
And this is AFTER our friend James had been over with Peter and stripped off the old, peeling, dirty wallpaper declaring it ‘unfit for purpose’! The boys didn’t seem to care. They loved being given free rein to make a mess, not make their beds and to draw on the walls if they felt like it.
We suggested that perhaps they choose a colour for the walls. At home I insist upon subtle shades of non child friendly grey or khaki for their rooms – they dream of Ben 10 duvet covers and Disney related bedroom stuff. They chose – RED! A bright, fire engine red, ketchup coloured red. I persuaded them into the idea of combining this with Cath Kidston cowboy wallpaper and bedding and we struck a deal!
A giant wooden cupboard was bought at Emmaus which is a kind of permanent car boot sale near Pau. This could house all the rubbish they’d bought at vide greniers and the various toys they brought over the years from home. These toys serve to remind us how quickly they grow up as there are Charlie and Lola books now deemed ‘lame’ still stored inside the Emmaus cupboard. A moshi monster treehouse that neither boy wants to play with any more but we save for when my god-daughter, baby Mabel comes to visit. And a wooden toy railway that looks great in photos but truthfully I’m not sure anyone ever played with it! Now they have iPods or they watch films on their laptops.
But in those early months when we had no wifi or broadband we all survived. We played endless games of Monopoly, backgammon or took a trip back to the 70s with Mastermind – a game my grandparents used to play with me and which I bought again at a vide grenier and my kids love.
And their room is a brilliant combination of old and new. A cornucopia of funny old toys and games and when I snuggle them up there in the evenings with extra blankets and they shout ‘wrap us up like sausages’ it’s like being in the 1970s only without the bad sitcoms and the Green Cross Code man. And their room is so lovely, they’ve forgotten to complain about sharing. And I rather like their ketchup coloured wall. It’s not farrow and ball but I like it.